All three athletes from women's table tennis team that won a bronze medal for Hong Kong came from traditional top girl's schools, but two of them dropped out to pursue their careers as full time athletes.
Doo Hoi-kem graduated from Heep Yunn School, while Lee Ho-ching and Soo Wai-yam were from Diocesan Girls' School.
Lee graduated from St. Rose of Lima's School and went on studying at Diocesan Girls' School. However, she dropped out of school in 2008, devoting all her time in becoming a professional athlete.
Apart from this year's Tokyo Olympics, Lee had also participated in the London 2012 and the Rio 2016 Games. Although she failed to advance to the semi-final in the previous two tournaments, this year the team finally proceeded to the semi and brought home a bronze medal.
Soo, like Lee, also decided to drop out of school when she was in secondary three despite being able to get into top girls' school in the city.
Soo is the daughter of Soo Chun-wah, a former player for the Hong Kong table tennis team. She learned how to play the game since she was 3.5-year-old, and received formal training when she was five. She also joined Hong Kong youth team when she was 10.
Soo once beat China's Ding Ning 3-0 in the World Team Table Tennis Championships in 2018, marking one of the best games in her career.
Dropping out of school doesn't mean Soo completely gives up her studies. She still picked up books and studied hard on her own when she was not training.
As for Doo, in 2014 she was ranked as world's number one among players aged under 18 for nine months by the International Table Tennis Federation. In that year she also won a silver medal in the women's single in the Nanjing Youth Olympics.
In 2016 Rio Olympics, Doo teamed up with Lee and Tie Ya-na in table tennis women's team event. Yet they lost to Germany in the quarter-final.
